Doubts raised over AI's call centre operator

With IndiGo tipping Air India in the number of domestic passengers carried last month, a section of the national carrier's staff has expressed concerns over the handling of its call centre operations by a group that owns the no-frill airline.

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ITGD Bureau

Mumbai

December 26, 2010

UPDATED: December 26, 2010 10:08 IST

With IndiGo tipping Air India in the number of domestic passengers carried last month, a section of the national carrier's staff has expressed concerns over the handling of its call centre operations by a group that owns the no-frill airline.

Air India had in January last year selected InterGlobe Technologies (IGT), whose holding company is InterGlobe Enterprise that runs IndiGo, as the provider of its call centre service.

The selection was done through a competitive bidding process.

"Our call centre is run by the IGT and they possess all vital information about the passengers we book," Air India staffers, who requested anonymity, said, adding that chances of conflict of commercial interest could not be ruled out.

The booking data contains name of the passenger, his contact number, flight details, the price of ticket and even meal preferences -- thus giving out the trend of ticket sale which is an important input for competition.

The IGT is also in the process of setting up a data mart for Air India for real-time information on passengers aboard its flights, they said.

"It is a wake up call for us. Going by the market share in the last eight months of the current fiscal, it looks like the no-frill carrier has cannibalised significantly on our pie," the staffers said.

When contacted, an IGT official refused to comment on the issue.

Air India last month lost out its third position in market share after Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, which it has been holding for several years now.

Budget carrier IndiGo cornered 17.3 per cent market share in November as against 17.1 per cent held by the flag carrier.

While Air India's market share has been on a downward trajectory in the April-November period, IndiGo's share has generally seen an upswing throughout, barring July.

Air India recorded the highest number of flight cancellations in November while IndiGo ranked second in terms of the lowest number of cancellations during the period.

Interestingly, erstwhile Deccan Aviation, which had initially given its centralised reservation services to IGT, had migrated to another service provider Radixx Reservation System in March 2007.

Capt G R Gopinath, who then headed Deccan Aviation, had reportedly said that shifting to another service provider had occurred in view of conflict of interest with IGT.

The erstwhile Indian Airlines also had several years ago shelved a proposal to engage IGT for its reservation system due to direct conflict of commercial interests.

With inputs from PTI

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